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  #1  
Old 01-16-2021, 06:00 PM
mbcohn mbcohn is offline delete all word files in a nested directory Windows 10 delete all word files in a nested directory Office 2016
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Hi. All I'm trying to do is this:




a) The user selects the parent directory.
b) The program loops through the parent directory and any subdirectories, deleting all Word files (both .doc and .docx) as it goes.
c) The remaining files live happily ever after.





I googled around a bit, and found some similar situations, but not exactly what I need, and I haven't succeeded in modifying anything I've found. Thanks for your attention.
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  #2  
Old 01-16-2021, 08:57 PM
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Try:
Code:
Option Explicit
Dim FSO As Object, oFolder As Object, StrFolds As String
 
Sub KillDocuments()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Dim TopLevelFolder As String
Dim TheFolders As Variant, aFolder As Variant
Dim strFile As String, i As Long
TopLevelFolder = GetFolder
StrFolds = vbCr & TopLevelFolder
If TopLevelFolder = "" Then Exit Sub
If FSO Is Nothing Then
  Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
End If
'Get the sub-folder structure
Set TheFolders = FSO.GetFolder(TopLevelFolder).SubFolders
For Each aFolder In TheFolders
  RecurseWriteFolderName (aFolder)
Next
'Process the documents in each folder
For i = 1 To UBound(Split(StrFolds, vbCr))
strFile = Dir(CStr(Split(StrFolds, vbCr)(i)) & "\*.doc", vbNormal)
Do While strFile <> ""
  Kill CStr(Split(StrFolds, vbCr)(i)) & "\" & strFile
  strFile = Dir()
Loop
Next
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub
 
Sub RecurseWriteFolderName(aFolder)
Dim SubFolders As Variant, SubFolder As Variant
Set SubFolders = FSO.GetFolder(aFolder).SubFolders
StrFolds = StrFolds & vbCr & CStr(aFolder)
On Error Resume Next
For Each SubFolder In SubFolders
  RecurseWriteFolderName (SubFolder)
Next
End Sub
 
Function GetFolder() As String
Dim oFolder As Object
GetFolder = ""
Set oFolder = CreateObject("Shell.Application").BrowseForFolder(0, "Choose a folder", 0)
If (Not oFolder Is Nothing) Then GetFolder = oFolder.Items.Item.Path
Set oFolder = Nothing
End Function
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Old 01-16-2021, 10:56 PM
mbcohn mbcohn is offline delete all word files in a nested directory Windows 10 delete all word files in a nested directory Office 2016
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Thanks, that seems to work great.


How does it also find .docx files in this case?
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Old 01-16-2021, 11:00 PM
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Because the code doesn't care what's after .doc in the extension. Accordingly the code would also delete .docm files. If that's a problem, an extension test could be introduced to exclude those.
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Old 01-16-2021, 11:28 PM
mbcohn mbcohn is offline delete all word files in a nested directory Windows 10 delete all word files in a nested directory Office 2016
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Ok, thank you, this appears to be exactly what I need. I really appreciate your time.
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Old 01-17-2021, 04:07 PM
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Paul has done a good job which but there would be a simpler way that cuts down on the code looping through subfolders.

There are shell (command prompt) commands that can do the iterative deletion more simply. Refer to Recursively Delete a Specific File Type from all Subfolders | SumTips for an example of one line deleting all files in subfolders.

Running Shell commands in VBA https://www.myonlinetraininghub.com/...mand%20Prompt.

You would most likely still want Paul's folder selection code.
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Old 01-17-2021, 04:17 PM
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Yes, I have used Shell code myself (see https://www.msofficeforums.com/142257-post5.html). I prefer to avoid the screen flickering, though.
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Old 01-18-2021, 05:03 PM
mbcohn mbcohn is offline delete all word files in a nested directory Windows 10 delete all word files in a nested directory Office 2016
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Running the code on a series of nested folders, many Word files were deleted, but eventually there was a Run-time error 53 on:


Code:
  Kill CStr(Split(StrFolds, vbCr)(i)) & "\" & strFile

I have looked at the folder where it stopped, and I don't see anything unusual about the files there. I ran the program again, this time aiming it only at the problem directory, and it worked fine. I wish I could tell you the names of the files or directories, but unfortunately that's not possible.
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  #9  
Old 01-18-2021, 06:45 PM
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Run-time error 53 typically means the file concerned was not found. That may be just the result of a timing issue.

One could precede:
Code:
Kill CStr(Split(StrFolds, vbCr)(i)) & "\" & strFile
with:
Code:
On Error Resume Next
but that might result in files being left behind. Running the macro a second time might me a safer option and would take little time.
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